CeMENT: Mentoring for Junior Faculty
CeMENT ANNOUNCEMENT: National Workshop in Atlanta!
Mark your calendars: The Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession will be holding a National workshop aimed at mentoring junior faculty at institutions where tenure is primarily based on research output in conjunction with the ASSA meetings in Atlanta in January 2010. Application and registration material will be available at http://www.cswep.org/mentoring/register.htm in August 2009.
The deadline for applications is October 1, 2009.If you are a senior professor, think of individuals who you think would benefit and encourage them to apply to either the regional or the national mentoring workshop.
Preliminary results analyzing national CeMENT attendees, to be reported in a CSWEP and CSMGEP sponsored session in Atlanta, indicate that attending these mentoring sessions makes a difference!
CSWEP has received funding through 2012 from the American Economic Association to continue a series of mentoring workshops to help junior economists overcome the tenure hurdle, with a special focus on addressing the unique challenges that women face at the beginning of their careers.
National workshops are designed for junior faculty whose institutions promote primarily on research and publications. Regional workshops are aimed at helping junior faculty in institutions where tenure is based on teaching, research and service.
At the regional mentoring workshops, participants are arranged into small groups based on their teaching/research areas and matched with a senior mentor. At the national mentoring workshops, participants are arranged into small groups based on their research areas and matched with a senior mentor. At both workshops the format and curriculum are designed to create and cement relationships among the participants, as well as between the participants and the mentors. Small and large group sessions will address issues such as identifying successful teaching strategies, tips from journal editors, networking strategies, balancing work and family, and issues regarding the tenure process.
Here's what a few participants had to say about their experiences:
Junior faculty benefit from the CeMENT workship in many ways. First, the content of the sessions and reference materials provided are very helpful, particularly in the area of research. Second, the workshop provides many opportunities to meet successful people, particularly women. Junior women can learn a lot from senior women in a variety of areas -- everything from how to handle a negative referee's report to the suggestion of hiring a cleaning service to free up some time in our lives! Third, the workshop provides junior faculty with an instant support group of people with similar research and teaching interests. Members of my research group send e-mails on a monthly basis, and we are planning sessions for two future meetings. —Lisa Jepson at University of Northern Iowa.
What aspect of the workshop was most beneficial to you? 1. Tips! I have lists of things that I should be saving for my tenure file, ways to get my name out there, strategies that will help me get published, get tenure, and stay sane in the process. 2. The biggest realization for me is that although there is uncertainty surrounding tenure requirements, I need to ask questions. Within days of the conference, I was already discussing what I need to do with other members of my department. Everyone should be so lucky as to participate in this conference. It's an eye-opening and extremely positive experience. —Gwendolyn Alexander at Fordham.
The most beneficial aspect [of the workshop] was the nature of the answers I received from the senior faculty members. There was no circumventing the questions. For instance, if I asked, how many hours I should spend on doing such and such. The answer was x hours, not "well, that differs from person to person, do what you are most comfortable with......." In other words, there were real solutions to all the problems. This workshop was probably the most important thing that has happened in my career so far (okay, I'm not tenured yet). I consult the notes that I took during the workshop over and over again. —Tinni Sen at VMI.
We are pleased and excited to continue CSWEP's tradition of mentoring junior faculty. We hope you will apply, and look forward to seeing you at one of our workshops!
